It has always been a dream of mine to photograph the President of The United States, and now I can cross that off my list of things to do. David Palmer is the first African American president in US history. Well, in TV history I should say. Dennis Haysbert played President David Palmer on Fox’s 24, and he talked about playing the president at our shoot, “A lot of people considered me to be the first black president – which is ridiculous, but that’s the power of TV.”

Speaking of the influence of TV. I am seriously considering switching my auto insurance to Allstate.

I photographed Dennis while he was in Seattle working on an upcoming movie called “The Details“. Toby Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, and Laura Linney are also in the film. It is being labeled as a dark comedy, and there are rumors that the plot revolves around a married couple dealing with a raccoon problem. That might just be a rumor though. Dennis said that you could get 30 different answers as to what the film is about depending on who you ask. We will see… (Here) is an interesting story about the home the movie is being filmed in. Sounds like the project hit some rough spots, but they are back on track now.

Conan recently ran a pretty funny sketch on The Tonight Show called Twitter Tracker. The sketch quoted several celebrity tweets in an attempt to convince viewers of the value of Twitter. The grand finale was a tweet by Dennis Haysbert. “Just saw the new Star Trek movie. Wow, really good.” I was hoping to go to his Twitter page after our shoot and read about how he just worked with the most amazing photographer. It turns out the whole skit was made up, and Dennis doesn’t even use Twitter. Can you believe that? Conan, making stuff up?

Tim Gunn. The man is like a saint. Everyone loves him. And I have to say, he is one of the nicest people I have ever photographed or met. He was kind, easy to work with, and the only person who has ever said to me, “Are you sure you don’t want more time?” at the end of a shoot. What most people don’t know about this picture is that I actually made his suit out of an old soft box, and the lining from one of my camera bags. “Find a way to mitigate that center seam” he repeatedly instructed as I tirelessly worked, rushing to finish the garment. “Make it work!”

Talk about pressure. Thankfully he thought the suit was stunning, and the shoot went great too. While I was packing up, I noticed Tim in the corner of the room tearing up a piece of berber carpet. I gave him a questioning look, and he said, “For our next challenge, you will be designing an outfit for a garden party. You have fifteen minutes to caucus.”

Dr. Marsha Linehan is a Psychologist and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington. She is one of the world’s leading experts on borderline personality disorder, (BPD).

“Borderline individuals are the psychological equivalent of third-degree-burn patients. They simply have, so to speak, no emotional skin. Even the slightest touch or movement can create immense suffering.” – Dr. Marsha Linehan

“Borderlines are the patients psychologists fear most. As many as 75% hurt themselves, and approximately 10% commit suicide — an extraordinarily high suicide rate (by comparison, the suicide rate for mood disorders is about 6%). Borderline patients seem to have no internal governor; they are capable of deep love and profound rage almost simultaneously. They are powerfully connected to the people close to them and terrified by the possibility of losing them — yet attack those people so unexpectedly that they often ensure the very abandonment they fear. When they want to hold, they claw instead. Many therapists have no clue how to treat borderlines. And yet diagnosis of the condition appears to be on the rise.” – John Cloud, Time

It’s a fascinating article, and you can read it in it’s entirety here at Time.com.

In the course of a conversation this past summer, it was mentioned that Annie Leibovitz was going to be in Seattle that November. As soon as I heard this, I was gone. Blank stare. Absent from the conversation. I was thinking, “What would it be like to photograph Annie Leibovitz? Would she let someone else take her portrait? I don’t think so. She is one of the greatest photographers ever. The only pictures I have ever seen of her were self portraits. How nervous would I be if I got to take her portrait?” A couple of months later, I received an email from a photo editor at Seattle Metropolitan; “Do you want to photograph Annie Leibovitz?”

I thought a lot about how I would photograph her. But after dreaming about some grand and sizable production ideas, I decided not to try to do too much. I would just do what I do best, and keep it simple. We were scheduled to shoot in a private meeting room in a downtown Seattle hotel, with no chance of moving to a different location. Because of her full schedule that day, I knew she would be tired. An interview with Steve Scher on NPR (listen here) right before the shoot, and speaking at Benaroya Hall for ‘Seattle Arts & Lectures‘ right after. I had a small window of time to work with her.

When Annie came into the room, she looked around at the lighting setup, and said, “Wow, this looks scary.” My thoughts exactly, but it wasn’t the lights I was thinking about. We talked a few minutes about photography and cameras before she sat down. Then I told her about my idea for the portrait, and asked if she would mind taking off her glasses. She said that was fine, and I started to shoot. It was a balancing act trying to find the line between being in control to get what I wanted, and not being pushy. I could tell that she was not comfortable being photographed. She moved around a lot while I shot, and I decided to be flexible rather than push too much to hold a certain pose. Things don’t always go exactly to plan, and sometimes this can be a pleasant surprise. It felt like the shoot ended up being a collaboration in making the pictures. It’s not often that I work with someone who is so willing to be expressive and experiment as she was. Shortly after we started, the shoot came to an end, and I knew that I had the shot. I thanked her for her time, and she said, “You did good.” I’ll take it! What a compliment.

The article that was published in Seattle Metropolitan, and written by Steve Wieking can be read here.

Technology Review, November 2008. This was my first shoot with Dan Kaminsky. He is a hacker who discovered and helped fix a huge security hole in the Internet. Read more about his story in the Wired Magazine post (here).